Bulldogs give Sabres, future foes something to think about

STREAMWOOD – The Batavia football team aimed to win a game Saturday, and perhaps send a message to future opponents while they were at it.

Both objectives seemingly were accomplished Saturday as Batavia clubbed Streamwood, 56-14, at Millennium Field in Upstate Eight Conference River play.

"If teams come to scout us, we want to give them something to be concerned about," Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. "So if somebody was here today from our league, we would hope that they'd see a product that was executed well and was diverse offensively, defensively can bring pressure and cause you concern if you make a mistake."

The Bulldogs (3-1, 2-0 UEC River) played short-handed because of injury, especially on the defensive side, but still enacted the running clock for the entire second half after building a 49-7 halftime bulge.

Bulldogs senior running back Anthony Scaccia scored four touchdowns in the second quarter, two on rushes, two on receptions. Scaccia (14 rushes for 129 yards, three receptions for 53 yards) did all of his work in the first half.

Playing on turf for the second straight week, Scaccia's knack for leaving defenders in the wake of his sharp cuts and spins was again evident.

"Especially on my screens, I think I had Max Heidgen and a couple other guys just lay out kids, so it was easy for me to just make cuts off of that and score," Scaccia said.

Bulldogs senior quarterback Micah Coffey completed his last 12 passes of the afternoon after misfiring on his first two. Coffey threw touchdowns passes to Jordan Zwart, Rourke Mullins, Scaccia and Blake Crowder, with the 4-yard toss to Crowder coming with 12 seconds to go in the first half.

"He also audibled like three times, he also changed calls three times, changed passes to runs, changed from short to deep, picked up two [hot reads] when they blitzed, threw it right where the blitzer came from," Piron said. I mean, he's dangerous. He's really a kid who is smart and studies the game. I'm very, very proud of what he's doing."

Coffey gave way in the second half to back-up Evan Acosta as the Bulldogs substituted aggressively on both sides of the ball.

Defensively, tackle Ryan Minniti also had a monster first half, notching two sacks, recovering a fumble and consistently pressuring Sabres quarterback Mason Polich. Minniti said scooping up the turnover – one of three fumbles Streamwood lost on the day – was his favorite.

"The fumble, because I thought I was going to break away from that guy and start running for a touchdown," the 5-foot-11, 230-pound Minniti said. "But I got caught."

The lopsided loss continued what has been a dreary first month of the season for the Sabres (0-4, 0-1 UEC River) and first-year coach Mark Orszula.

"They've got a number of good, skill athletes," Orszula said of Batavia. "They're older kids, just hard kids to defend. They put their kids out in space and give them opportunities, and our kids just didn't make plays when we needed to."

After blowing out Geneva last week, the Bulldogs appear to be gaining mid-season momentum.

"Once we get kind of clicking, we're pretty nice to watch," Piron said.